In the
state much hyped as God’s own land, it has been living up to the expected
reputation by playing host to a variety of so called God men and women
belonging to all religions. They had been enjoying immunity from any
sort of prosecution or accountability due to their proximity to the
powers that be. The changes in the ruling party every general election
had not affected them to any significant extent as they had followers
cutting across party lines. While this was in the private sector things
were no different in the public sector! The famous Ayyappa temple at
Sabarimale, though being run by a govt. appointed body and one of the
world’s largest temples enjoyed a reputation for miracles, particularly
on the day of Makara Sankranthi which falls in mid January and the day
of worship for Ayyappa, the presiding diety.
Things
have suddenly changed. The miraculous flame witnessed on the day of
Makara Sankranthi called as Makara Vilakku appears on a hill called
as Ponnambal Medu opposite Sabarimale where the Ayyappa temple is located.
This flame appeared unfailingly and was supposed to be a miracle. It
was given many sources including that it was a tribute to Ayyappa from
gods residing on the hill where the flame used to be seen. For the uninitiated,
Ayyappa is a go supposedly born out of a union between two male gods
Hari and Hara (Vishnu and Shiva) and hence called as Harihara too. This
god is supposed to be very much of a misogynist. So, the precincts of
the temple and a large area around, was barred to females of the reproductive
age group. How he could tolerate females out of menarche defies explanation,
but one could assume that it had something to do with hormones. Some
of the devout tried to explain it by claiming that women could find
it difficult to observe the rites needed for a trip to the hill or that
menstruating women’s bleeding would attract wild animals etc. There
was a furore when a Kannada film actress of yester years claimed that
she had entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and had resulted
in attacks on her.
The miracle
of the miraculous flame on the hill top on the Makara Sankranthi day
had been exposed by the activists of the Kerala Yuktivadi Sangham nearly
three decades back. They had photographed the setting up of the flame
and this resulted in the wrath of the devotees who had beaten them up.
They had shown that the so called divine flame was only a human phenomenon
sponsored by the Kerala Electricity Board. For having taken the trouble
of enlightening people, the rationalists were attacked by the devotees.
This activity was supported by the Kerala govt. even when the state
was ruled by communists who are supposed to be atheists. When queried
as to why it was being done, the chief minister answered that Ayyappa
was a hundred crore business. That was a three decades back! Now, Ayyappa
must be a business of thousands of crores and one of the richest temples
in the world. The origin of this so called divine flame had been exposed
many times by our movement and in the media. I had met a person in Madhya
Pradesh who was teaching Hindi in a central school. He told me that
before he joined the teaching profession he had been with the Kerala
armed reserve police. For three years running he had been one of the
armed guards for the vehicle of the Kerala Electricity board which used
to transport the paraphernalia and the person performing the miracle
up the Ponnambala Medu hill.
Due to
the relentless questioning of the rationalist groups, the temple authorities
have now decided to admit that the Makara Vilakku is man made and the
grandson of the managing trustee has now gone on record that the flame
has no divine origins. The very same people who attacked the rationalists
for saying the same thing three decades back are now silent. So much
for the one of the biggest mass hysterias of India following which millions
of men (sorry women not allowed!) observe curious rituals like walking
barefoot, avoiding contact with all women, wearing black and such before
they go to Shabarimalai to fulfill their vows. They are also supposed
to possess miraculous powers like walking on fire, doing worship with
lit camphor on their palms etc. These have been demonstrated by us innumerable
times to be ordinary things which any one can do and the scientific
principles behind them explained!
Well when
such things happen to gods, god men and god women cannot be far behind!
For all their pretensions to rational thinking, literacy and a high
quality of life index, the average Keralite is a highly superstitious
person. Perhaps, this comes from a need to be ‘spiritual’! The need
to be ‘spiritual’ has also resulted in Kerala being one the highest
per capita consumer of liquor in India. That apart, the believer just
needs something to believe in and it is that which drives them to the
dens of the so called god men. These god men and god women build up
empires of millions by amassing wealth from their devotees and donations
from abroad. To show that the money is being put to good use they make
shows of running hospitals, educational institutions, orphanages and
such. These are all facades behind which their greed for money is well
hidden. These people used to convince the gullible of their supernatural
powers by performing tricks like ‘materialising’ things from thin
air, showing immunity to fire, using chemicals to perform apparently
miraculous happenings etc. They would also perform ‘healing’ of
all kinds of diseases relying on the placebo effect. They would also
act as astrologers predicting doom and then warding it off by rituals
which they would perform!
One of
the most renowned in this field is the god woman, Sudha Mani who goes
by the alias of Mata Amritananda Mayee. She is one of the largest recipients
of foreign donations in Kerala and runs professional colleges, hospitals
and owns a TV channel too! Though she started her career performing
miracles like lighting a lamp with water, converting water into milk
pudding, healing a leper by licking his wounds etc. now she claims to
provide spiritual solace by hugging people!
In some
recent events a number of claimants of such miraculous powers have been
exposed and taken to task, thereby bringing to light what we rationalists
have been claiming all along that the so called miracles are nothing
but tricks. It all started with the arrest of one Santosh Madhavan alias
Swami Amrutachaitanya in May, 2008. There had been a complaint of cheating
against him and an Interpol red corner warrant had been also issued.
Despite of that he had not been arrested due to his high level contacts
among the police, beaurocrats and politicians. When this was exposed
by the press, pressure mounted on the left front govt. to act. He was
arrested and the skeletons came tumbling out. Behind his so called spirituality,
this character had a history of filming pornography, rape, cheating,
smuggling etc. His arrest opened the flood gates and complaints started
pouring in. The police had to act as the ruling front wanted them to
stop this exploitation rackets. This resulted in arrests, and exposure
of evidence about many of the rackets that were being run in the name
of religion by these so called holy people.
One of
them, Himaval Bhadrananda was carrying a revolver and threatened to
shoot himself in the police station and in the resulting melee the gun
went off but luckily no one was hurt. The police also uncovered fabulous
wealth which had been amassed by some of them. A Christian preacher
who was running his own sect had properties worth millions. He had bought
real estate, rubber plantations, shopping complexes all in the name
of charity. He had received almost a billion rupees from abroad in one
year. As the news of the exposures and action against these spread,
many of the victims who had not complained out of fear, those who had
complained and no action had been taken made it bold to come into the
open with their grievances. When enough media publicity was received
there was no alternative to the police but to act. During the courses
of the raids the hidden scandals came to light and the complicity of
the police and the politicians was also exposed. This also lead to the
suspension of the government servants involved in the nefarious activities
a deputy superintendent of police was suspended for being close to Santosh
Madhavan who was on the red alert list of the Interpol. A district medical
officer was kept under suspension for certifying that a couple of godmen
called Thanku brothers had healed a cancer patient. A revenue official
was taken to task for issuing a gun license to Bhadrananda and the police
were asked to explain how the gun was allowed into the police station.
This was followed by investigations by the income tax department into
the sources of the money received and the uses to which it was put.
No religion
was an exception to this. While most of those arrested and investigated
were Christians and Hindus, the activities of some of the Muslim godmen
came under the scanner. Though it is said that Islam specifically prohibits
miracles, there were some who claimed powers of healing disease, exorcising
demons etc. These called as Thangals in Kerala claim be direct descendants
of Mohammad, the founder of Islam lay claim to many supernatural powers.
There were demands that they should be also investigated.
The political
fall out of these exposures was very funny. While the BJP-RSS leaders
had been followers of many of these godmen, their exposure turned out
to be an embarrassment. So, in order to sidetrack the issues they started
turning their guns on the congress and left front politicians who had
been seen with those belonging to the so called minority communities!
But, that did not help as the so called minority community ones started
getting exposed. In the meanwhile some of the others came out with statements
that in the name of exposing the fakes the genuine ones should not be
harmed. These included the no.2 of Sudha Mani (AKA Amritananda Mayi),
thereby implying the others were fake while hers was a genuine movement!
This was despite that earlier days, she had relied heavily on hearsays
and claims of her so called miracles. So, this was a typical case of
pot calling the kettle black! When the news from Kerala spread, the
godmen of Karnataka were also given a taste of the same medicine. One
of them Satyanarayana of Mysore who goes by the name of Ganapathi Sachidananda
Swami of Datta Peeta was taken to task by the district administration
for having forged documents. Though he tried to act holier than though,
the police took him to the police station for questioning where his
lawyers produced an anticipatory bail order and he had to be released.
Similar thing happened in Bangalore where a self proclaimed god man
was beaten up by his own devotees and he ran away from his ashram.
All these
are welcome signs that the so called spiritual leaders are being questioned
and legal action is being taken. But, the biggest of them, Satya Narayana
Raju (alias Satya Sai Baba) of Puttaparthi continues to be unscathed.
Despite of reports of his pedophilia, murders in his bedroom, financial
scandals, kidney stealing racket and such he continues merrily with
his so called spiritual activities and tricks which he calls as miracles.
It is time that such are also investigated and made accountable to the
law of land. There are others of the ilk like Ravi Shankar who has been
grabbing land around Bangalore, Ramdev with his claims of curing all
diseases by yoga and many such.
The rationalist
movement has been playing a vital role in the exposure of these called
god men (and women too) by revealing their tricks by which they hood
wink the gullible, asking for investigations into allegations and providing
support to those who have been cheated. In the recent past the rationalist
organizations in Kerala, particularly the Kerala Yuktivadi Sangham has
been in the forefront of the struggle against them. Some of the youth
organizations, particularly the Democratic Youth Federation of India
have played an active role in exposing them. Sustained campaigns have
taken place in Kerala exposing the tricks of these god men and educating
people about not falling into their traps. Such a campaign and the need
for action against these, is needed all over the country and not only
in one or two states. The arrogance that their so their called spiritual
status provides them immunity from laws of the land has no place in
a democracy where all citizens are equal.
|